Residents venture back on to Baghdad streets

Baghdad: Like countless residents of Baghdad, Zeinab Al Saffar feels like she has been imprisoned by the city's perilous security. But the prospect of reprieve for the middle-aged civil servant and millions of others may be moving closer.

Zeinab is representative of a large number of Baghdad residents who agree America's "surge" of troops has improved conditions, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. While she currently lives in the heavily guarded Rashid Hotel, after fleeing her home in the mostly Sunni district of Amiriya following death threats and the murder of her brother by Shiite militants, she said on Monday that the time when she returns home may be approaching.

"In the last month I feel the situation is getting better but I am still in a prison," she said. "I have a special problem that the people who took my brother want to kill me because I have campaigned so hard against them. But my sister says it's better for her.

"She is going out at night for the first time in a year to shop. The streets are opening up. I have hope again that I can return to Amiriya even though the people there are Sunni because the problem is not with my neighbours but with the leaders." General David Petraeus told Congressional leaders on Monday that extra forces had made inroads against violence in the city. Residents and even his own officers in Baghdad acknowledge improvements but stress that severe challenges remain.

Rejoice

Lt Col Steven Miska, a district commander in a divided area of northern Baghdad, said some of the greatest benefits in areas under his command derived from a sea-change in the attitudes of Sunni insurgents who forged alliances with the US coalition to expunge Al Qaida loyalists from their streets. "It's made a great difference that local people are fighting the Al Qaida threat."

Lt Col Miska has sought to build confidence in security by manning small platoon outposts and ordering a steady schedule of street-by-street patrolling. "I've saturated my area with foot patrols so that people feel more comfortable in their own street." Despite the lack of progress by Iraq's own troops, many Iraqis simultaneously acknowledge the efforts by US forces but say that they will rejoice when America is gone.